Thursday, August 13, 2009

Aquarium Trip

I’ve wanted to go to the aquarium for almost a year now. I thought we should wait for the girls to get a little older so they could enjoy it more. With things moving the way they are it was decided to do it now. Yeah!

We have a small fish tank at home and I told Teagan and Kaitlyn we were going to go to where there is a huge fish tank with gigantic fish. Daddy stretched his arms out to illustrate and Teagan replied with an “Unh-unh. They’re this big.” As she held out her thumb and forefinger. I was eager to prove her wrong.

Upon entering the aquarium the hall is flanked by two massive tanks that have a stream of (ugly) 1 foot to 4 feet long fish. Kaitlyn immediately starts with “DISHEES, DISHEES, DISHEES!!!” Teagan was awe struck. It was the exact reaction I was hoping for.

The aquarium is the world’s largest and every section was absolutely astounding. Daddy loves coral so we went to the Tropical Diver. I love jelly fish. Unfortunately I did not get enough time in the jelly fish area. They are so sinuous gliding through the water floating without a care in the world. The moon jelly was incredible up close. They are pure white with a four leaf clover pattern on the top. Gorgeous. The girls could have careless. So we continued on. “At the center of this gallery is one of the largest living reef exhibits of any aquarium in the world. Living corals and thousands of colorful reef fish are presented in a faithful recreation of a tropical Pacific coral reef, complete with an overhead crashing wave.” AWESOME, AWESOME, AWESOME. That is where the pictures of the girls are from. Now I would say this was my favorite part but it was the next section that has my vote.



In the Ocean Voyager section they have the second largest viewing window in the world at 23 feet tall by 61 feet wide. Teagan was so impressed that she actually sat with me for five minutes and just watched the whale sharks, humphead wrasses, hammerhead sharks, golden trevallies, crevalle jacks and tons of others swim by or just hang out in front. And of course I have to mention Nandi. Nandi is the aquariums manta ray. She is over nine feet across. Awe-inspiring as this beast glides through the water dwarfing sharks and other fish. Truly amazing and inspirational.

At this stage due to our late start Kaitlyn is getting tired. Daddy took her to hopefully rent a stroller which might allow her to take a cat nap, as Teagan and I went to the touching pool to try to touch some stingrays. She was too short. I held her as far over as I felt comfortable and had to hold her hair so it wouldn’t get wet. There was a scuffle between three rays and that would have been the best time to reach in but my Motherly instincts took over and I pulled her away. She still enjoyed reaching her hands in the water and watching them swim around.

Daddy came back empty handed as there were no strollers but he found the next best thing, Cheetos. That bought us our last hour at the aquarium. Were we saw otters, a very playful beluga whale, alligators, eels, piranhas, turtles and so much more. I have lived for years in the middle of theme park central and never bought yearly passes. When the girls are five and six we will be purchasing yearly passes. It was a wonderful day.

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